Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

As we mark Europe Day we celebrate the most successful peace process in our continental history. Since Ireland joined what was then the European Economic Community on 1 January 1973 our country has literally been transformed. The events of the last decade, however, have challenged the institutions which decades of work have assembled and have led to fresh questions about the future of our Union and about where we are going. The wrenching economic crisis sparked an existential crisis, the consequences of which are still playing out. New institutions and mechanisms were established and fiscal and economic powers concentrated in the Commission and in the ECB. Ireland has recovered economically but socially the scars remain. Political instability in Italy and Spain continues and Greece still struggles to recover from its economic woes. The rise of right-wing populism in France and Germany shows that even the heartlands of the Union are in difficulty, while in the east the undermining of democratic institutions in Poland and Hungary poses a threat that we simply cannot ignore.

However, the greatest test for us is Brexit. The exit of a member state was contemplated in the Lisbon treaty but few of the crafters of that treaty believed it would ever be tested. The vote of the UK to leave the Union nearly two years ago continues to reverberate and the unthinkable will become reality next March when the UK actually leaves. The challenges I have highlighted are all of deep concern, but it only shows how far we have come that 28, soon to be 27, individual countries on this continent continue to participate in the greatest concentration of sovereignty in European history. The clear message is that together we are stronger and together we can solve problems that have beset this continent for centuries. Together Europe is able to find solutions to the difficulties we currently face.

Encouragingly, as others have pointed out, the results of the most recent European Movement poll show that 92% of Irish people want to stay part of the European Union. It also found that despite the lack of real public debate about the decision of Ireland to join PESCO, which was referenced by the previous speaker, 59% of people supported Irish engagement in military and defence structures. To my mind that is a surprising figure. I regret the rushed decision of the Government last year to sign up to PESCO without proper debate here. We need to give people confidence in the decisions we take. The approach of Malta, which believes that certain operations may breach its neutrality, would have been a good model for us to follow. The move towards enhanced military and defence co-operation poses risks for Europe and presents a domestic challenge for our foreign policy if military strategies become part of European Council decision-making.

The successes of the Union have been many. It has fostered peace on our own island and been instrumental in supporting and negotiating the Good Friday Agreement. The shared EU membership of Ireland and the UK formed the essential bedrock to the Good Friday Agreement and provided the platform for ever closer alignment and integration of the two jurisdictions on the island of Ireland. The dismantling of customs posts and the creation of cross-Border bodies, often generously funded by the European Union itself, has laid the foundation for peace and strengthened the all-island economy, as a common set of regulatory standards enabled the free movement of goods, services and people on the island. It also provided a route for the vindication of rights and for the tens of thousands of Irish citizens in Northern lreland an uncertain future lies ahead. The irony of Northern Ireland unionists who advocated for an EU exit signing up for Irish passports to maintain EU citizenship rights, including the freedom of travel, was lost on no one.

The solidarity shown to Ireland since Brexit has been evidence of the power of membership for a small country like us as fellow members have committed to our objective of resisting the reimposition of anything like a strengthened or hardened border on the island of Ireland. A further example of that solidarity was when the Prime Minister, Theresa May, sought the support of the EU Council after the chemical weapons attack in Salisbury. That again was a clear demonstration that by pooling sovereignty we have actually strengthened our position as a country. This is an option that will be denied to the United Kingdom after next March.

Even as one member leaves, the prospect of growing the Union remains. There are six possible future members in the western Balkans, including Albania, Kosovo, Serbia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro. The EU has been an invaluable partner to peace in Ireland and, with our experience, can play a similar role in the Balkans, an area that has been ravaged, settling down ethnic challenges that have scarred this continent in recent decades. Ireland must also play its role in fostering the path to peace of those potential new member states.

Speaking to the Institute of International and European Affairs, IIEA, just over a year ago I said that once again winning the citizens of Europe to the European project and giving people enthusiasm for a vision of the potential of Europe requires a genuine recommitment to a framework for a Europe based on equality, personal freedom and prosperity. It requires EU institutions and leaders to address the problems pressing heaviest on their citizens, in particular stagnant or, in some cases, absent growth and spiralling youth unemployment. They must once again rekindle the potential of hope for our people. In other words, I believe we need to reinvigorate the notion of a social Europe. A Europe that does not recognise the dangers of economic under-achievement throughout this continent will not and cannot win the support of the European people.

Economic under-achievement has fostered a splintering of our politics and a rush to the extremes which repeatedly offer simplistic solutions to real challenges. We need to debate this and to act upon it. Prolonged EU austerity has done great damage to the political and social fabric of our Union.

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